OPINION: A Woman’s Worth

Age 1-8: be adorable

Age 9-12: navigate puberty as smoothly as possible

Age 13-15: morph yourself to fit today’s beauty standards, try to fit in

Age 16-18: be smart, get into college, don’t get pregnant

Age 19-25: be pretty, get a good job, don’t disrupt society’s norms too much  

Age 26-35: Why aren’t you married yet? Have you thought about kids? Time’s ticking.

“You know your career comes first, right?” my mother always told me. I was raised to be career-driven and ambitious. And it's transparent that society doesn’t determine my worth through my accomplishments. As a young woman trying to navigate through the pressures of this era and trying to prove myself in the workforce, it's tough knowing I’m fighting an unwinnable battle. No matter my accomplishments, no matter what I end up doing in life. From a stranger’s perspective, my worth will only be compounded by my appearance and their internalized perception of me.

How do I navigate a world where I will only ever be defined by my bone structure, body shape, presumed ethnicity, and ability/decision to conceive? Before one gets their period, they are released from the sexual expectations of society. Once one gets their period, their worth becomes dependent on their fertility and how/if they use it. Teenage pregnancy and giving birth out of wedlock are frowned upon, but once a woman hits the age of 35, she is shunned for wasting her eggs.

Age 36-85: maintain your youth, and defy nature’s curse of aging.

Once society stops sexualizing me, is when hopefully, I will start to be defined by what I want to be defined by.